Soldering iron tips

Abstract

A technique for producing soldering iron tips entails cutting clad wire into a plurality of segments, each segment comprising a core of material (such as copper) and an outer protective layer (such as stainless steel, Ni, Cr, or alloy thereof). Each clad wire segment is then shaped into a soldering iron tip by a cold or hot heading process, or other metal forming process. In the finished tip, the protective outer layer is disposed behind the working area of the tip, and serves to reduce the corrosion of the tip, and to improve the electrical conductivity between the tip and the soldering iron handle. A heater element can be formed at one end of the soldering iron tip from the same clad wire segment used to produce the tip itself, thereby ensuring good thermal transfer properties between the heater element and the tip. The invention also pertains to a technique for forming a protective outer layer on the working area of the tip. The technique comprises stamping caps from a thin strip or sheet of protective material, such as iron. More specifically, the caps are stamped out of the sheet using a die having a shape which resembles the shape of the working area of the soldering tip. The caps formed in this manner are then inserted over the ends of the tips, and attached thereto by applying brazing material to the formed cap or to the strip of material prior to forming the cap.